Meeting a Muggle
by Nepanone
Summary: Muggle Kailey Dowell, 14, escapes from her miserable life and accidentally enters a world that should've never been discovered; The magical world.
1. Home, Bitter Home

So, this is the new, planned out and remodelled version of Meeting a Muggle. This time, yes, I know where I'm going with it. Chapters from the original version were all deleted.

Now, I'm sort of discouraged writing this, because the thought that there are probably more writers than readers out there keeps hitting me. So please, if you read this, review, because you'll make me so so SO happy. Reviews are greatly appreciated, and constructive criticism even more so. I want your honest opinion about this. What should I change, what should I add, what should I get rid of, what mistakes did I make, if this fan fiction is boring. Plain criticism, however, is unappreciated.

For the confused ones, Damon's name is pronounced DAY-mon, and Kailey's is pronounced KAY-lee. Just in case.

Screw the disclaimer; this is fan fiction. Here's the first chapter.

Chapter One – Home, Bitter Home.

The puddles of water scattered about the grounds outside captured the setting sun, causing it to shine blindingly into Kailey Dowell's honey eyes. She closed the kitchen curtains, shielding her delicate eyes with her arm, and continued gloomily cleaning the dishes with an old, dirty rag. It had rained just the night before. Oh, how she loved the rain – all the while she despised it.

It reminded her of how long it had been since the cold raindrops spattered delightfully on her pale, freckled skin. How long it had been since such pureness dampened her short brown hair, causing it to stick to her soft face. How long it had been since she had stuck her tongue out, just to catch one drop of water. How long it had been since she walked inside her old creaky, dimly lit house with wet dripping from her dirtied white, old-fashioned dress. Oh, how she loved the rain – all the while she despised it.

Behind her, sitting around the circular wooden table, was her father, Damon and her older brothers Alex and Mackenzie.

"Hurry up and finish with the dishes, you dirty rat. I'm hungry." Scowled the impatient Damon. Kailey's attitude towards her family, at most times, was enough to send an adult lion crying home to his mother, but her family was considerably fiercer than a lion, and seeing as her father seemed to be in somewhat of a good mood, she kept her snappiness to herself.

"Yes, Father dear," replied the smiling 14 year-old adolescent mock-sweetly. She sped her dish cleaning up, cleaning and drying as fast as she could, even leaving dirty spots if necessary. Finally having finished and having stored the dishes in the old wooden cupboards, she commenced preparing her family's supper. She peeled bumpy old potatoes, discarding the peel and mashing the potatoes expertly.

"What's taking you so long?" asked Damon, increasingly becoming angry and more impatient. "We've been waiting for nearly 10 minutes! Go faster!"

She tried not to get angry and transferred all the mashed potatoes to a large bowl.

"I said hurry up! How long is this going to take you? We could order pizza in an hour and you wouldn't be done by the time it got here! Faster, or I'll have to punish you!" he said in a raised tone of voice. Kailey could see that his good mood was wearing off quickly. 'No point in being nice to him now,' she thought. She scooped a heaping teaspoon-full of mashed potatoes and tipped the teaspoon over on top of Damon's legs, the small amount of food slipping off to his lap.

"What was that?" he asked, face reddening with anger.

"Your supper," said Kailey coolly, "Now eat up!"

She turned on her heel and headed for the counter, even though she knew what was going to happen.

She felt something tug violently on the bow at the back of her white dress and her frail knees failed to hold her up any longer. She fell backwards, bashing the back of her head on Damon's chair. A piercing pain burst inside Kailey's skull as though her brain was being electrocuted. Damon, however, cared less about Kailey's bruised head than a rock would.

He grabbed a handful of Kailey's messy dark hair and tugged on it. Kailey lifted herself with his hand to reduce the pain as much as possible. He turned her around to face him. He stood up and moved his face closer and closer to hers until their noses were barely an inch apart, still tugging on Kailey's hair. Kailey found herself staring directly into Damon's deep blue eyes. He opened his mouth to talk slowly, releasing a foul-smelling breath. Kailey could tell he'd been smoking. Everything went completely silent aside from Kailey's heavy breathing. She could feel the tension rising up within her, and tried her best to keep controlled.

"Don't fool around with me, little rat," he said in a low, deep voice that buzzed through Kailey's small ears, "Serve me a proper dinner or I'll kill you like I did your mother without hesitation." Kailey glared at him as he released her hair. He used that threat often. Kailey didn't know if he would really do it had she disobeyed, but she, personally, didn't want to find out.

She obediently took out a plate from the cupboards and served her father properly. She cut up a few carrots that she retrieved from the rusty old yellow-turning refrigerator and reheated some leftover chicken, dropping the meat and vegetables in his plate. She repeated the process twice for her brothers' meals. She carried the three food-filled plates to the table and placed each before a different family member.

Returning to the counter to clean the mess she had made, she heard one of her brothers scream girlishly, and commotion revolving around the kitchen table was triggered. Kailey paused, feeling panic in her stomach, knowing from that moment that she was in trouble. Big trouble.


	2. In the Attic

Second chapter, duh. The indentations didn't work on the last chapter, let's see if they do on this one.

Oh yeah, and to Tom MARSHMELLOW Riddle: Marshmallow, and I agree on the hit counter thing. Oh, and that was totally unintentional, it was meant to be like more like Harry's, in fact. Anyway, there's no way I'll change it, because it's too necessary. If this was intentionally inspired by Cinderella, I would've made it a lot more obvious.

Chapter Two – In the Attic

Kailey laid on her back, staring upwards at the low, slanted wooden ceiling. She was panting furiously, and was no doubt in an immense amount of pain. She sat up slowly, wincing at the pain in her back. She was hiding in the attic. Her father had never seen her come in this room before, perhaps because she never had. The small room was unfamiliar to her. It was the best hiding spot she had, because Damon knew most of her other ones.

However, at the moment, Kailey was focusing more on the pain in her arms, back, ribs, fingers, legs, throat and head.

For one, her arms were red and swollen from Damon's tight and firm grip. He had most probably given her several "Indian sunburns", and they became numb.

The second best attempt at getting away from the cruel man had landed her on her back on the kitchen floor.

Damon had taken this as another opportunity to give Kailey "what she deserves", and kicked her in the ribs numerous times. Perhaps chipped a few bones, but nothing she wasn't used to. Not that it made it any less painful.

Damon had picked her up by the fingers, breaking most except her little finger on her left hand and her thumb on her right hand, and threw her up in the air, causing her body to land forcefully on her fragile, stick-like legs. As if that wasn't enough pain, she got on her feet and ran – or more appropriately, limped – over to the stairs, searching for a place to hide. The attic was the closest place to a perfect one she could think of, so she hid there, placing chairs and foot rests and old chests on the door positioned on the floor to delay Damon's entering when he found her hiding spot.

The whole time, she was screaming at the top of her lungs. Pointless, I must say, considering the fact that they weren't within miles of other human beings or households, and the most it did for her was give her a sore throat. She swallowed, attempting to mend the scratches in her vocal chords. At least this pain would be gone by tomorrow.

The whole thing had given her a severe headache. And it was perfect, because it added to her wonderful list of pain. She could hardly believe what had just happened. His reaction really surprised her. Damon usually had at least a little bit of mercy for her. But oh, no, not this time.

This time he didn't care that his daughter's growth was in his hands. This time he didn't care that maybe it wasn't entirely Kailey's fault (which it wasn't), and he could be considerate enough to only give her a slap on the head. And this time, Kailey had had it. This time, she was convinced that this life wasn't near appropriate for a fragile 14 year-old. She needed to get out of this house.

Unfortunately, there was no way out. Not at the moment, at least. The attic was deprived of windows, and the only door was the one she'd come in, and that door could only be opened from the other side. Who built that door, and why? The only way she could escape now was if Damon found her first.

In the meantime, she decided to explore a little. The attic was quite a fascinating place. It was full of old chests and suitcases and dust and spider webs. Just like the ones in movies. Not that Kailey would know.

She crawled around the room, brushing dust off of a few old chests. However, there was one particular object that she noticed at the corner of her eye. It was an old grey porcelain jewellery box with the shape of a rose engraved on the lid. It was one of the most beautiful things she'd seen. Yet, she hadn't seen much in her life.

She slid her unbroken little finger across the lid, revealing a streak of white. Now excited to see how the rest of the jewellery box appeared without the dust, she pushed out her palm and used it to scrub every square inch of dust off of the jewellery box.

The small white box glittered, magnifying the dim light in the room times ten. The surface was smooth and slippery.

Kailey placed her right thumb under the lid and lifted it, revealing most splendid items. The first one to catch Kailey's eye was a black-and-white photograph of a young lady with long black hair. Or so, it appeared to be black in the black-and-white photograph. She was smiling. Smiling with beautiful white teeth. She had a smile that comforted Kailey greatly. She would've enjoyed staring at the picture the whole day. But one question dwelled in Kailey's mind. Why was she smiling? Was it at the fact that there was an arm around her shoulder? The owner of that arm remained anonymous to Kailey; the picture was ripped in half. Kailey flipped the photograph over. There was writing on the back, and that Kailey knew. What she didn't know was how to read it. It didn't matter to her at the moment, anyway. She was glad to finally be looking at a happy face.

Kailey was almost too busy staring at the pretty lady to notice a rumbling at her feet. Almost. Her father was banging on the door, yelling so loudly that Kailey could barely understand what was coming out of his mouth. Quickly, she slipped the photograph in the frilly white sock on her right foot and closed the lid of the jewellery box quietly. This was her chance to escape at last.

"Open the door right this instant!" yelled Damon furiously, banging repeatedly on the door. Kailey rolled her eyes. Did he really expect her to listen to him? Instead, she stood by a wall and stared at the door, waiting for it to open. 'Any minute now,' she thought, 'Any minute now, my father will come bursting through that door, and I'll slip past him and run to the front door. I'll be free; I'll finally be free!'

And that minute didn't come. The banging stopped, and she could hear her father walking away. 'No!' she cried to herself, feeling more desperate than ever. 'He can't do that, he has to let me out!'

She sat against the wall, brought her knees up to her stomach and laid her forehead on them, shaking it gently, as though it would help get the thought of being stuck in a small attic with no way to escape out of her head. No, the shaking may not have helped, but something else did.

The floor tile flung open and up climbed Damon as he dropped the broom he was carrying to his side. Kailey jerked herself on her feet, her heart beating rapidly. Her father was angry – very angry. On top of it, the one girl he was angry at was standing against a wall with nowhere to go. Kailey was once again in trouble.

Damon's pace quickened as he walked toward Kailey. Kailey looked to her sides. There was no point in going there; her father would catch her anyway. She had only one choice.

Damon leaped toward her, his arms outstretched. Kailey bent down and slid between his legs, tripping him in the process. She wiggled her feet to dislodge them from underneath Damon's stomach and ran for the door, jumping down and kicking her two brothers in the face, leaving them pained and confused. She ran as fast as her small legs would bring her and bounced down the stairs. 'Just a little further,' she thought. But that thought shrivelled up and died as she felt two strong hands on either side of her. Those hands lifted her from the ground as she kicked the air and struggled in vain. Damon dropped her aside, causing her to yelp, and proceeded to lock the door.

"There will be no going outside after this," he said, half-smirking at the girl glaring at him.

He walked past her, pushing her aside with his foot. Kailey ran to the door and shook it harshly. It didn't budge. It was locked, and any hope she had of escape perished. She sunk to the floor, sliding her back against the door, her face resting in her palms. She just needed some time to think. There had to be a way out.

So Kailey hopped up the stairs and down the hall to her room. The first step to a good plan was a good rest.


	3. The Plan

Chapter Three – The Plan

For a couple hours, all that could be heard in the cold, hollow room in which Kailey slept was her soft, rhythmic breathing. She awoke suddenly and silently. There was no apparent reason that could hint anyone to why she awoke, but it was normal to her. She was never able to get much sleep. She figured as long as she got a couple hours of sleep, she should function well.

From the soft, almost invisible light glowing through the small window, Kailey could tell it was still night time. Her family members would still be sleeping. The snoring she heard confirmed that. Slipping the small cover off of herself, she dragged herself quietly over to her teddy. A funny name for such a thing, for it looked nothing like a teddy; perhaps a soccer ball – or a frog, at the most. But definitely not a teddy.

"Fuzzy," she whispered – ironic, really. The texture from which it was made was perhaps the roughest. "Do you have any suggestions?" Silence. She spoke again. "For the plan, I mean. I need to get out of here. I hate it here. I'll bring you, of course!" Once again, no response. Kailey sighed.

"Do you want to see what I found in the attic?" Her face lit up as she pulled the picture out of her sock. She held it in front of the "teddy's" head. "Isn't she pretty? I don't know who it is, but it sure is something nice to look at once in a while. I hope Damon doesn't find it. He'll rip it up for sure." She looked at it one more time before slipping it back in her sock.

"Alright, Fuzzy; I don't know what time it is, but if we want to get out of here, we need to hurry and think up a plan. Damon locked the front door, so we can't get out there. The window in my room is too small and too high off the ground. I could maybe make a rope and let you climb down it. Then you could look around outside to see any ways out, and climb back up the rope. It's not that easy though, because you're plarlalyzed. I found that out yesterday when Damon was watching a show – I don't know the name of it. But there was a man who acted a lot like you; he didn't move. They said he was plarlalyzed – or something like that. But he could still hear and talk. And I know you can hear me. I just wish you would talk to me." Kailey stared at Fuzzy for a few seconds. He didn't move at all.

"Never mind. You don't have to talk. I'll figure something out." Kailey lifted herself and stared out into the cold night. The moon remained high in the sky and the wind played gently with the leaves that hung off of the old maple tree in the backyard. Of course! The backyard! She could escape through the backyard! It had always been off-limits, but that worried her no longer. Not as long as she could escape. She examined it thoroughly. There was no sign of a door that led outside of the backyard; only the old maple tree, a small bunch of flowers in a corner and a gardening shovel. Kailey's mind wandered unwillingly as she remembered an old movie that her father was watching. It was about two men who were trapped in jail, although they were innocent. She had missed the middle of the movie, but caught the ending. They had dug a hole that went under the walls that surrounded the jail. They ran away and never returned, and the police had never found them. This memory brought Kailey back to reality.

"Fuzzy!" she whispered excitedly, "I have an idea!"


End file.
